Reception – RE/Letters and Sounds

On Monday Mrs O’Connor brought into school Deacon Paul’s vestments to show us, including the different coloured stoles that are worn at different times of the church year. We especially liked the white stole that is worn at the celebration of baptism. We guessed that the pink one is worn for Mary’s feast days. We also saw the alb and the dalmatic garments. She told us that the stole represents the towel that Jesus puts over this shoulder at the Last Supper when he washed and dried his disciples’ feet.

We also held our very own baptism in our class church. We all said “I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. We followed this with a class celebration which included singing songs. Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon was the delicious cake at the end.

Letters and Sounds

As promised in the children’s Letters and Sounds books, below is one of the games we play at school. You may like to have a go at home.

What’s the sound Mr Wolf?

You will need:

  1. Your child’s word bag.
  2. Lots of space – outside is best.

What to do:

Take out tricky words (star shapes) from the word bag. 

You will only need the other high frequency words for the game (words that can be sounded out)

  1. Stand your child several large paces away from ‘The Wolf’ (parent).
  2. Pull from the word bag a word, say the word and ask your child to sound it out.
  3. Your child will then say the sounds loudly as they take strides forward.
  4. Make sure your child takes just one stride per sound.
  5. Choose another word and repeat.
  6. Once your child is close enough to The Wolf, turn round and shout ‘dinner time!’
  7. The wolf chases your child who runs back ‘home’ and start again.  Agree where ‘home’ will be prior to beginning the game.

I normally stand with my back to the children and turn round each time I say a word.

You can also swap places with your child who becomes the wolf and reads the words out to you.

For support

  1. Check the sounds with your child by clapping them first as you say them together.
  2. Show your child how to take one step per sound for each word before he or she begins taking their paces.

Wishing you all a great weekend.

Nicola Palmer